


All was, well

by anotherbuskitten



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, List Fic, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 12:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12059190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherbuskitten/pseuds/anotherbuskitten
Summary: Still, it worked for a bit didn’t it?Camelot, Hogwarts, uniting the country.It worked once.





	All was, well

 

**Helga (Wales. Muggleborn)**

 

-Helga is born to Arthur and Guinevere, King and Queen of Britain. This would be a bigger legacy if it weren’t for what happens next.

 

-Guinevere dies in childbirth. Arthur would never blame Helga, not for a second but he’s in mourning and still king so maybe he can’t be blamed for being a bit of an absent father.

 

-Helga’s brother Ellyn doesn’t blame her either. Or well, he doesn’t want to.

 

-As far as Ellyn is concerned he’s been forced to exchange a loving mother for a screaming child. He isn’t happy with the swap. But he’s twelve now. He’s an adult.

 

-(Arthur either doesn’t notice his coldness or puts it down to sibling rivalry. He didn’t get along with his sister either.

 

-They’re friends now and he tries very, very hard to put aside Morgana’s sins. He forgets.)

 

-Helga is four when she starts showing signs of magic.

 

-Merlin had been younger but Morgana had been elder.

 

-Arthur makes sure she knows he loves her. She never doubted it, but then, she never met her grandfather.

 

-Ellyn finally _understands_.

 

-He loves his sister of course, but he’s always known she killed his mother.

 

-The only thing is; it’s never made sense that she could kill their mother when he had been a much bigger and stronger baby.

 

-But magic? It must be hard for someone without magic to carry a magical child.

 

-Of course.

 

-Do not blame him. Helga never did.

 

-Arthur is a good king, a great king, the best there ever was. Still there will always be people who want power and there will always, always be complaints. Ellyn finds these people, collects them and then goes to his father.

 

-Arthur hasn’t been paying enough attention to his son. He was more than self-sufficient at that age so why wouldn’t his son be?

 

-(Ellyn has never met Uther Pendragon either)

 

-Still when his son arrives in an empty throne-room with his hand on his sword even Arthur knows something is wrong.

 

-Ellyn didn’t want his mother to die. He doesn’t want his father to die. He doesn’t want his sister to die. But he’s scared, and he’s young. Neither of these are sins.

 

-His father won’t yield his stance on magic.

 

-Meanwhile,

 

-Merlin is teaching Helga. Or is it the other way round? No one can quite tell.

 

-He feels something dangerous in the air but it’s been so long since they were at war.

 

-He doesn’t want to ever see war again.

 

-Perhaps he gets his wish because he meets Ellyn before he can reach Arthur.

 

-He never sees his king’s body.

 

-Ellyn doesn’t want to kill his sister. He might still have killed his uncle if she hadn’t been there.

 

-He says leave.

 

-They do.

 

-They find Morgana while still in Camelot.

 

-This is deliberate on every side.

 

-Arthur may have forgotten but his kingdom hasn’t. The war was started by Morgana le Fey. Morgana desired the throne above all else.

 

-Morgana has killed the king!

 

-The cry runs though the country.

 

-Merlin hides Helga in the folds of his cloak, finds Morgana about to storm the castle, and runs.

 

-He never does see the war that follows.

 

-So Helga doesn’t grow up with the legacy of King Arthur on her shoulders

 

-But the much worse one of Prince Ellyn, the man who declares magic a killer, who will give gold to anyone who brings him a sorcerer’s head, who gave her a chance to run,

 

-Who sang her to sleep and never let her notice that her father wasn’t around.

 

-She grows up on the run.

 

-Hiding in hedgerows and caves. In forests and lakes. In taverns and hermit houses.

 

-She learns from these: she learns plants and poisons from the wilds. She learns other things in the cities.

 

-Merlin and Morgana try to shield her from the worst of it. They don’t succeed.

 

-Helga takes her first life at age ten.

 

-She slits his throat the same way she would a wild animal and hides the body in the outhouse.

 

-They need a place to stay to hide from the storm. Merlin doesn’t question it – it isn’t the first empty home they’ve come across.

 

-Morgana notices her niece’s shaking hands. She doesn’t question it either.

 

-After the storm they go to a forest again. That’s when they meet Salazar.

 

**Salazar (England. Muggleborn)**

 

-Salazar grows up normal

 

-His family isn’t rich

 

-They aren’t magic either

 

-The village has a druid nearby

 

-Salazar meets him once; after a drought.

 

-The message from Camelot to destroy all magic is slow to arrive in the smaller villages

 

-The first this one hears about it is when men storm their druid’s house

 

-The fires spread quickly

 

-Salazar is told to run by his father. He is given his baby sister to hold and pushed out the back

 

-He doesn’t run

 

-He doesn’t know what he’s running from yet

 

-The fire doesn’t touch him

 

-He doesn’t notice but the hunters do

 

-They pull him into the village centre

 

-They try to fan the flames in his direction. It doesn’t work so they hold him down to torch him.

 

-His parents are watching. Salazar’s face is to the ground so he can’t see them

 

-He hears their cries though

 

-They cry for their baby

 

-He still isn’t burning but the smoke is in his head

 

-He can’t see his sister anymore

 

-When he tries to get up to look the men push him down again

 

-He sees her then, still clutched to his chest. The fire did burn her.

 

-Even if it hadn’tthe push to the ground left a gash in her head that may have bled her dry

 

-This is a small village, remember. Small people fear power.

 

-They hadn’t disliked the druid but not a one of them could have given his name either

 

-They call the Slytherin’s youngest boy a murderer before they call him magic

 

-Either way, they don’t want him here.

 

-He doesn’t burn though, so the hunting men take him away to kill. They say it’s for the parents’ sake. Who knows?

 

-Salazar doesn’t run

 

-He’s beaten and battered and orphaned. He isn’t sure he wants to.

 

-Helga finds them in the woods

 

-She’s climbing from tree to tree to avoid leaving footsteps

 

-She lands on the cart without a sound and slits the one guard’s throat

 

-Salazar doesn’t understand what is happening

 

-It’s been a long day.

 

-(He still has his sister’s blood on his shirt)

 

**Rowena (Ireland. Halfblood)**

 

-Rowena is half-blood.

 

-Not that they call it that yet.

 

-Wizards are druids. Everyone else is normal.

 

-Rowena is a seer.

 

-There is no name for seers either.

 

-Cursed, perhaps, or Godly.

 

-Rowena feels neither cursed nor godly. She is lonely, perhaps, except she dreams of great friends.

 

-Rowena knows what Helga’s laugh sounds like before she ever knows her name.

 

-Godric’s also.

 

-But not Salazar’s. Salazar doesn’t give his good humour lightly.

 

-(She knows other things about him though. She learnt her prayers from him).

 

- _Our father, which art in heaven,_

 

-She prays when the war comes to her family’s doorstep

 

- _Hallowed be thy name,_

 

-She prays when the soldiers take her father away

 

- _Thy kingdom come,_

 

-She doesn’t pray when her brother starts shouting

 

-It isn’t his fault.

 

-He doesn’t know what’s coming.

 

-He won’t let her tell him

 

-Her family never believed her about her dreams being real

 

-Even the ones they saw come true

 

-She didn’t mind.

 

-Rowena was a patient girl.

 

-She knew people would believe one day.

 

-She holds her sisters close and pretends they never had a mother or a father.

 

-They’re both too young to remember otherwise.

 

-She teaches them her prayers

 

- _Thy will be done,_

 

-One day her brother sits next to her and says them too

 

- _In earth,_

 

-One day he takes her hand.

 

- _As it is in heaven._

 

-(It isn’t quite heaven.)

 

**Godric (Scotland. Pureblood)**

 

-Of the four of them the war touches Godric the most.

 

-And the least.

 

-The thing is – Arthur’s reign had always been too good to be true

 

-Every druid community expected there to be a catch

 

-When the war starts Godric spends a lot of time being bitter that they didn’t take more advantage of the peace

 

-He’s already nine when Ellyn takes the throne

 

-He’s a year into his apprenticeship and his master’s head is on its way to Camelot

 

-If he was braver he would have done something when the soldiers came

 

-He wouldn’t have hid

 

-He’d at least make sure his master had a proper funeral.

 

-He’d, he’d,

 

-He’d what?

 

-Godric isn’t a coward.

 

-(What he is: he’s a child, he’s alone, he’s scared, he’s sensible)

 

-He considers going back to the settlement, to his family.

 

-Instead he goes west.

 

-He sticks to the coastland mostly

 

-His mother had power over the water and

 

-He _misses_ her.

 

-He doesn’t know if she’s alive or dead.

 

-(He never will.)

 

-He walks around Britain, learning from whoever he meets on his path

 

-He learns shortcuts from envoys

 

-And thievery from other orphans

 

-And battle from old men

 

-(and wolves in the wood, and monsters in the old places, and soldiers in the cities)

 

-He learns kindness from their wives

 

-And love from their children.

 

-As for cruelty? Well, he learnt that long ago

 

-The only thing he doesn’t learn?

 

-Magic.

 

-He never speaks a spell again.

 

-Godric doesn’t mind if he’s called a coward.

 

-But he won’t let you call him druid.

 

**Salazar.**

 

-Helga takes to having a brother again easily.

 

-Much better than Salazar does to having another sister

 

-He _just_ lost his last one

 

-And as for the adults?

 

-Why would he ever trust those two?

 

-He goes with them though.

 

-He has nowhere else to go.

 

-They aren’t…that bad he supposes

 

-Just eccentric

 

-And magical.

 

-(Very magical.)

 

-He doesn’t ever tell them how he found his magic

 

-And he tries to hide that it scares him

 

-Does he succeed?

 

-If he doesn’t then no one says anything

 

-Perhaps they should have done.

 

-Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps…

 

**Helga.**

 

-It might be easy, having Salazar around

 

-But that doesn’t mean it isn’t painful

 

-He isn’t much like Ellyn – at least, she doesn’t think so? She barely remembers him anymore

 

-She knows he was private, much like Salazar

 

-She knows she _isn’t._

 

-She knows she could just ask about her elder brother

 

-She could

 

-She doesn’t

 

-How can she?

 

-Beloved nephew. Tyrant.

 

-How could she ever ask?

 

**(Morgana.)**

 

-She shouldn’t be here.

 

-She had no right to the peace Arthur allowed her.

 

-She has no right to the love he lost.

 

-What she does have a right to are her nightmares

 

-And, quite frankly, she would never wish them on anyone else

 

-Especially not the young girl whose mind she finds herself inhabiting more and more these days.

 

-Too young that girl.

 

-Too young for her magic, for her pain, for her daughter.

 

-Far too young.

 

-She kisses Helga goodbye when she leaves. Waves at Salazar. Steals Merlin’s scarf.

 

-She goes to Ireland.

 

**Rowena.**

 

-She could be a queen, the woman on their doorstep.

 

-She holds herself like one. Straight spine, head high, disdainful look,

 

-Cold, cold eyes.

 

-She takes one look at Rowena and Rowena _knows_

 

-(Rowena knows a lot of things.

 

-She knows how many people there are in her village. She knows how many of them are soldiers. How many are children.

 

-She knows her sisters aren’t ever coming home.

 

-She knows prayers don’t work.

 

-She knows her daughter won’t last the year if she stays here.

 

-She knows her brother…

 

-She knows her brother…

 

-She knows her brother’s heart isn’t beating anymore.

 

-Rowena knows a lot of things.)

 

-She nods.

 

**Godric.**

 

-Meanwhile, Godric is not a child anymore.

 

-He hasn’t noticed it yet.

 

-But he’s got a sword on his hip,

 

-And a swagger in his step,

 

-And a promise in his eyes.

 

-He’s been around Britain four or five times now and…

 

-He isn’t bored exactly

 

-But he’s got a touch of arrogance in his soul

 

-And he doesn’t think there’s a lot left the road can teach him.

 

-He goes home.

 

-He goes home three times.

 

-He tries to find the woodland he spent his childhood in but one tree is much the same as another and he loses his way.

 

-He tries to find his old master’s house but

 

-(Godric isn’t a coward. He _isn’t_.)

 

-He doesn’t find his way home so he builds new one.

 

-The people of Hoggsmeade says the land on the hill is cursed

 

-But Godric (who isn’t a druid) recognises it as simple magic.

 

-The building that will one day be Hogwarts starts her life as a one-room brick building.

 

-Godric sleeps his first peaceful sleep since King Arthur died.

 

-It isn’t a conscious decision, as such

 

-It’s only, he remembers all the lonely children he met on his travels

 

-The ones who helped him

 

-The ones he helped

 

-The ones who couldn’t be helped.

 

-And it’s a lot of land, cursed or no

 

-Much too much for one boy.

 

-So Godric who-isn’t-a-druid goes and searches Britain for children with nowhere to go. And when he finds them he takes them home.

 

-And the house that will one day be Hogwarts grows.

 

-And one day he wakes up and there’s a group of teenagers in his garden who knew to come here.

 

-And one day he wakes up and he lives in a castle on a hill with more children than he can handle.

 

-And one day a man in heavy, rich clothing comes to talk to the lord who owns the land.

 

-And the next day he is no longer Godric Not-a-druid but Lord Godric Gryffindor.

 

-And he may be in over his head.

 

**Hogwarts.**

 

-Four is the right number for them, Salazar thinks. But maybe not this four.

 

-There is still someone missing.

 

-Morgana left one evening and didn’t say where she was going. And then she didn’t come home.

 

-Merlin made them go back to Wales when he was dying. Regardless of how dangerous it was he was going to die in Camelot.

 

-And regardless of how dangerous it was they were damn well going with him.

 

-And now it was the three of them; Helga, Salazar and Rowena.

 

-And Helena.

 

-Who, speaking of, grows quicker than they can handle.

 

-Luckily there are rumours.

 

-Rumours of a castle on a hill that will take anyone in, no matter how strange

 

-Lord Gryffindor is a man people talk of

 

-Madman, moon-addled, thief, magician, soldier, con-man, fool,

 

-Oh, they hear many rumours on their way to Scotland.

 

-Rowena hasn’t told her new friends about her dreams.

 

-(There is still no word for seer.)

 

-But secretly, Rowena knows about Godric

 

-She knows he is good, and she knows he is worried for his children who are not his

 

-She knows his smile, and she remembers his laugh

 

-She knows that Scotland, that Hogwarts, is the right choice.

 

-(It isn’t called Hogwarts yet; just Gryffindor Castle, up on the hill. Rowena will name it by accident one day in the future, forgetting that no one else knows the name yet.)

 

**Epilogue.**

 

-Would they be proud of what their school becomes? Of their houses?

 

-Well let’s see,

 

-We’ve bold Godric

 

-Proud? Certainly, of the students as individuals, but as a pride?

 

-They’ve let him down.

 

-Sly Slytherin, that’s what they call Salazar nowadays

 

-He wouldn’t stand it.

 

-Hogwarts is a haven.

 

-Hogwarts is a school.

 

-Hogwarts is hope.

 

-At least it was when he lived

 

-Now it seems more warzone than haven

 

-More training ground than school

 

-Less hope and more hostility.

 

-No Salazar wouldn’t be proud

 

-But how can he complain? He’s the one who left, after all. He’s the one that tore them apart.

 

-Then there’s Helga,

 

-Sweet, kind, ruthless Helga,

 

-She’d understand better than her friends

 

-And she’d forgive.

 

-But she wouldn’t keep Hogwarts as her own.

 

-She abandoned one castle already. It isn’t anything to do it again.

 

-And finally, we’ve mad Rowena

 

-She saw it all coming.

 

-Her daughter’s betrayal? She did nothing to stop it.

 

-Her death? The same.

 

-Tom Riddle,

 

-The-Boy-Who-Lived,

 

-Rowena dreamt every day that would ever be in that old castle

 

-Rowena holds Helga’s hand as she dies and wonders,

 

-Would all ever be well?

 

**Author's Note:**

> it turns out that, no matter how hard I try, I can't make this into a proper fic, it just works better this way


End file.
